“Civilised life, you know, is based on a huge number of illusions in which we all collaborate willingly. The trouble is we forget after a while that they are illusions and we are deeply shocked when reality is torn down around us.”
― J.G. Ballard
Last night, Governor Lee presented his sixth State of the State Speech. Post-speech, he garnered as many headlines for the unscripted portion as he did for his prepared remarks.
Despite, a recently implemented ticketing plan for gallery seating, several hecklers managed to infiltrate the upper balconies. These folks repeatedly interrupted Lee's speech with cries of "no", and "expand Medicare." To the point, the short-term Gov became visibly irritated.
Midway through his speech, Lee went off script, evoking a line he has used in the past, "It’s a very good time to remind everyone that, as it has been, civility is a strength. It is not a weakness.”
I dunno, it's been my experience that if you have to self-identify your strengths, they are not really strengths.
Normally, I'm not a fan of verbal iterations, but at this juncture, I kind of enjoyed Lee's look of discomfort throughout his speech. The man has certainly earned it, and ultimately I think he costs his party members several seats in the upcoming election.
For the most part, Lee's speech contained lots of platitudes, cherry-picked to make him appear in a more competent light, with a few policy suggestions sprinkled in. Some of those policies involve students and their families.
· More than $261 million to strengthen education through the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) formula growth, including teacher pay raises
· $30 million for summer learning programs to support students between school years
· $3.2 million dedicated to AP Access for All, which provides AP courses to students across rural and urban Tennessee
· $2.5 million to strengthen students’ reading and phonics skills
· $577,000 to ensure we train Tennessee teachers to be the best and brightest educators of Tennessee children
· $15 million to fund charter school facility improvements
it all sounds good if you read it fast.
There was also a proposed $141.5 million to establish Education Freedom Scholarships to empower parents with the freedom to pick the right school for their child. But, we'll get to that in a minute.
Throughout his speech, the Governor played fast and loose with statistics designed to paint a brighter picture than his opponents.
For example, Lee claimed, "For the first time in our nation’s history, just six states in the Southeast, including Tennessee, are contributing more to America’s GDP than the entire Northeast – that includes New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Tennessee has emerged as an economic powerhouse for this country."
I guess if you finagle the numbers around, that's true. But, if you lift his qualifier - why he feels the need to compare Tennessee to the Northeast is beyond me - you'll find that Tennessee is not among the seven biggest contributors to the U.S. GDP, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
California is way ahead of the competition as far as per-capita contribution goes. With 11.7 percent of Americans living in California, the state contributed 14.2 percent to GDP in Q1 of 2023. New York state, where 5.9 percent of Americans live, had a share of 8.1 percent of GDP that quarter. Florida, which has a 6.7 percent share of the population, only contributed 5.5 percent of GDP.
It is true that as a region, the Southeast contributed the biggest share of just over a fifth to the U.S. GDP. But, you can thank the heavily populated states of Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina for that distinction. A kinda important distinction, don't you think?'
In his quest to pay homage to parents, Lee proposed greater control over social media"
Parents also know best what social media does to kids.
Depression, anxiety and loneliness are all skyrocketing among children. Study after study tells us how damaging social media is for children.
We must empower parents with the tools to help their kids online.
So, this year, I’m bringing a bill that will give parents tools to oversee their child’s social media activity, and it will require social media companies to get parental consent for minors to create their own accounts in Tennessee.
I guess that means comic books and heavy-metal music are safe this year.
You may not recall, but in 1954, child psychologist Fredric Wertham wrote a bestseller called “Seduction of the Innocent,” which warned parents of the danger of comic books.
“Comic books stimulate children sexually,” Wertham wrote, “a sexual arousal which amounts to seduction.” He claimed that Superman encouraged juvenile delinquency, that Batman and Robin were gay lovers, and that Wonder Woman encouraged lesbianism.
Wertham didn't just go after the books, but the places that sold them as well, calling comic book stores — “obscure” places “where children congregate, often in backrooms, to read and buy secondhand comic books” — which the psychologist labeled “foci of childhood prostitution.”
In the 80's it was heavy metal music that was contributing to increased teen drug use, depression, anxiety, and suicide. Something had to be done and so Senate hearings were convened.
It was at these hearings that musician Frank Zappa told Senators, "The PMRC proposal is an ill-conceived piece of nonsense which fails to deliver any real benefits to children, infringes the civil liberties of people who are not children, and promises to keep the courts busy for years, dealing with the interpretation and enforcement problems inherent in the proposal's design."
Now it's social media's turn.
Governor Lee's statement begs the question of, which kids are creating social media accounts with parental oversight?
To access social media kids require a device. How do they get that device without parents providing it?
In my household, nobody uses a social media platform without first asking. We also have a lot of conversations about what you share, when you share, what it all means, and the potential consequences.
When it comes to parental consent forms, my kids sign probably about 75% of what is required.
Yeah, I can be a little lazy, but the question remains, why is this law necessary?
Ironically, these statements came on the heels of Governor Lee's proposal to spend 144 million dollars to expand school choice.
In his, Lee gives an emotionally charged call to action, "Now, there are some who say that parents don’t belong in the decision-making process about their child’s education. But our responsibility is to the student and to the family, not to the status quo."
I gotta ask if parents are incapable of monitoring students' social media accounts without assistance from the government, how can they be expected to make the best choice of schools for their children?
As I've acknowledged, we are looking at private options for high school for my son. It's a daunting task, and I seldom feel like I'm fully equipped to make the right decision. Can’t imagine what other parents are feeling.
Lee's Education Freedom Accounts ain't going to change that.
Lee defends his proposed investment against those who claim it would hurt public education, "Some are concerned that more choices for families could mean fewer resources for public schools, but that is simply not true."
Sorry Bill, but unless you are telling me that there is an unlimited supply of resources, simple economics show that statement to be untrue. If you have a limited supply of money to divide and you give one side more, it only stands to reason, the other side gets less. That's reality.
I'm trying to refrain from diving too far into discussing details of the Governor's proposal because in reality there is little available. Which in itself says a lot.
We are nearly a month into session, and there is no legislation available for discussion. Nothing. Just hearsay and innuendo that shifts with political sands.
There are hypotheticals, and what-ifs, with a few maybes thrown in, but nothing concrete.
If I know something is truly beneficial for people, I don't need to wait till the last possible second to make it available. it can stand on its own merits, with ample time for debate.
This draws me to another statement in Lee's speech, "Last year, we gave teachers the largest annual pay raise in state history, and we’re not done. We’ll make another significant investment in the TISA formula this year, and we’re working on a plan to help public schools retain the best and brightest teachers in their individual districts."
The key word is "working".
Again, nearly a month into session, and nearly two-thirds of the school year gone, and he's still working on a plan?
But when it came to A-F grades for school, he had time to hold a dozen town halls, convene a working group that met four times, and create an email address to gather public input, all for a policy with no discernible impact. All in the pursuit of something nobody was clamoring over.
Forgive me Governor if I fail to take you seriously. But you leave little choice.
Two more State of the State speeches, just two more, then maybe we can have a serious conversation about improving educational outcomes for kids.
- - -
I'm going to admit something here that I probably shouldn't, but what the heck?
I don't read nearly the education-related materials that I once did. It's just that everything has become so redundant, that I can complete most articles after the second paragraph. So I rarely proceed past that point.
But every once in a while, I come across a piece that really opens things up.
In this case, it is the transcript of a policy dialogue between Carol Burris and John Neem. Burris is a former principal who is now the executive director of the Network for Public Education Foundation. Johann Neem is a professor at Western Washington University and a historian of the early American Republic.
I encourage you to read the whole transcript, but I want to pull out a few highlights.
First off, the two acknowledge that schools are about more than just reading, writing, and arithmetic. something you don't hear every day.
In Neem's words, "the preparation of citizens was one of the primary arguments to justify the expansion of public schooling. And the other public one, which is worth talking about, is socialization, or as you put it, learning to be an American." She continues, "And I think that was also one of schools’ public functions in a diverse society. How do you bring people together in common institutions so they see themselves as members of the same people? After all, it wasn’t just in the United States that the expansion of public schooling and the formation of nation-states went hand in hand."
Neem gets to the meat of the matter, putting forth that the reason public schools took off can be attributed to "an overlapping consensus that everybody benefits from these schools in different ways. Parents may have one set of goals. Students may have another. Teachers and educators may have a set of goals. Policymakers may have a set of goals. But there was enough overlap to sustain new institutions and build a very large number of stakeholders."
Burris concedes this point adding her fears that those are currently under attack. She points to Neal McCluskey, the education freedom director of the libertarian Cato Institute as an example.
McClusky argues that school choice is needed because we are so diverse. McClusky fears that we will have wars within our schools if we don’t allow people to choose schools that reflect their values and their values alone. Burris finds that incredibly frightening because what it creates is Balkanization. She points to all of the major conflicts that we see now in Israel and Palestine, Iraq, and in the past in Northern Ireland. They happen when one faction or religion declares, “Here is my group; this is my set of beliefs, and I want nothing to do with that group and their set of beliefs.”
I don't disagree with Burris.
She further warns, "What worries me so much about the school choice movement is that sense of shared community, of getting to know “the other” well, is exactly what we’re losing when school becomes a preferred commodity. You’re shopping for a school that aligns with your beliefs and aligns with your preferences and culture. You lose it all."
Neem responds:
This is the great danger of school choice, but the same danger also comes from progressive channels within the public schools, where I think a lot of educators are uncomfortable talking about the “we” in Americans. So, you’ll find statements like, “This holiday belongs to these people,” or “This is a white thing,” or “This is a Latino thing,” and so on. I have two concerns about that. One is that it threatens our capacity to tolerate, respect, and celebrate our diversity while also seeing ourselves as one people with shared traditions and rituals—and even books. The other thing I worry about is that it weakens the argument you just made when it’s coming from within the schools. In a sense, this discourse within the public schools creates the same outcomes that the parents’ rights advocates and privatizers are seeking to create in the school choice movement. Instead, I really think that we need to revive language about the commonness of the common schools, not at the expense of respecting diversity, but with the goal of becoming comfortable again with the fact that the schools are also important in forging a common Americanness. We are a diverse society, but we also need to share some things to be a people.
Burris goes on to share an anecdote from when she was a parent of school-age children:
Our kids grew up on Long Island, and the particular school district we lived in was not the best by far. But it was okay. So I became invested in that school district and its improvement. I got involved in the PTA. I ran for the school board. I served as school board president, and along with other parents, we did everything we could to make the school better. Now, looking back, if somebody had come to me back then and said, “Hey, listen, here’s school choice. You don’t have to work so hard to improve your local school. You can send your child to this district or that district or this private school, and we’ll pay for it.” As a young mom and a busy mom, I might have taken the chance. But what are the long-term effects of choice systems? Now, we’ve created this system where people think of public schools as a large, leaky boat, and pundits are shouting, “Oh, the boat is sinking!” So we start throwing out these life rafts, be they online schools, charter schools, voucher schools, and the emphasis is no longer on trying to right the ship, but to escape it.
This is an argument that I've rarely heard yet it cuts to the bone.
Government seems to be made up of people that want to either do things for you, or to you, rarely with you. That's to our detriment.
Got me thinking, what if a voucher came with a requirement to provide public service to the local school district. In essence, we'll give you money to help with alternative education plans so your child can do better, but you have to do something to help all children do better.
The required service could be anything from helping with groundskeeping to providing tutoring services to organizing fundraisers.
In this way everybody would win, right?
There is a lot more to chew over in this discussion. Thank you Peter Greene for - as the kids say - putting me on to it.
- - -
Former Metro Nashville Public Schools Chief Academic Officer Monique Felder is expected to be named interim superintendent for Montgomery County Schools in Maryland. Felder mostly recently served as superintendent of Orange County schools in North Carolina before abruptly leaving last summer.
In listing Felder's credentials, the Wahington Post is slow to mention Nashville. Only late in the article do they note:
"After leaving the Prince George’s school district in 2016, Felder served as chief academic officer for Metro Nashville Public Schools in Tennessee. A few years later, she was one of several employees investigated for allegedly receiving undisclosed consulting fees from the Educational Research and Development Institute, a business that tests educational products and provides feedback. An audit posted by WTVF NewsChannel 5 in Nashville found that Felder received $2,000 in honorariums and other money from the institute but did not correctly report it on a conflict of interest form.
The forms are supposed to “be done retrospectively,” to include money from the previous year according to the audit. Instead, the audit found Felder disclosed “possible future compensation” on the reporting form for January 2017. She fixed the issue in an addendum in October 2018."
The Post also notes, that at her next gig as superintendent with Orange County Schools in North Carolina, she ran into trouble when an independent financial review reported that the school system was heavily relying on its rainy-day fund at an unsustainable level.
Despite these incidents, the Montgomery School Board expressed confidence in Felder, saying that she is “a trustworthy, upstanding and highly respected educational leader.”.
The appointing of Felder is necessitated by Montgomery County Schools Superintendent Monifa B. McKnight stepping down Friday amid questions about how the district handled sexual harassment, bullying, and other allegations involving a former principal.
Well, that sounds familiar.
Sito Narcisse, who Joseph brought to Nashville along with Felder, is also stepping down before the completion of his contract. Narcisse has been serving as the superintendent of the East Baton Rouge Parish School System. His contract was set to expire on June 30th and the board had chosen not to offer him a renewal.
Adam Smith is expected to return as the interim leader of the East Baton Rouge Parish school system, three years after he was passed over for the permanent spot in favor of Narcisse, an out-of-state educator.
The further removed we get from the tenure of Dr. Shawn Joseph the more I question the wisdom of recruiting a school leader out of Maryland. It seems like looking for a school leader in Northern Maryland is like going to a bar to find someone to lead your AA group.
- - -
Time to rattle the cup a little bit before I head out the door.
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Oh, Fredric Wertham. You made me want to dig out my copy of Seduction, a classic work of culture panic, which was also followed by the 1954 US Senate hearings held by a Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on juvenile delinquency. I can't find my copy of the hearings, but sure enough, they are now available online. Your own Estes Kefauver was there, and one of the folks testifying was Wiliam M. Gaines, publisher of EC Comics, plus Walt Kelly and Milton Caniff. Definitely an artifact of a more innocent age. Elvis's first big hit was still two years away, and then they'd have something to really panic about.